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Jon Brunelle, magician, performs at Salisbury School Friday, Feb. 6, at the Salisbury Forum.
Patrick L. Sullivan
SALISBURY — Magician Jon Brunelle made a pencil levitate and hypnotized the president of the Salisbury Forum during “Illusory Magic: A Personal History of the Craft in Pictures, Words and Trickery,” a Salisbury Forum event at Salisbury School Friday, Feb. 6.
Between tricks and illusions, Brunelle provided a brief history of magic, and of his own career.
He said he was primarily active in the 1970s and 1980s, and showed a clip from Japanese television of him causing hard round coins to pass through a pack of playing cards and into a coffee mug.
“Notice my ’80s hair,” he said.
Brunelle said that in medieval Europe magicians had to be alert to charges of witchcraft.
They incorporated religious references into their acts to stave off such accusations, to the extent of a beheading illusion featuring John the Baptist.
The familiar “cups and balls” sleight of hand routine is old enough to have been satirized by painter Hieronymus Bosch in the 16th century.
His own introduction to the craft came at age 9, via a book advertised on a bubble gum wrapper: “Practical Magic,” by David Robbins.
Eventually he was able to make a living at it. One source of revenue was performing at industrial trade shows.
He developed a performance art act in the 1980s that combined surrealism and absurdism with elements of magic.
As to how the tricks work, Brunelle said successful magicians are students of psychology. They understand human perception, and how to “control the delivery of information.”
“Eye contact, hypnosis, clothing — it’s all misdirection.”
This was how he was able to “hypnotize” Salisbury Forum president Sarah Tennyson, while the audience laughed.
He also touched on how artificial intelligence is changing how people perceive reality.
He cited the time the early-20th century magician and escape artist Harry Houdini was bound and jumped off a bridge through a hole in the ice of the frozen Detroit River.
Houdini was down below the surface for quite a while, and the spectators feared the worst.
He reappeared, and subsequently claimed he freed himself quickly but was swept away by the current. Houdini said he made his way back to the hole, sucking in air from pockets in the ice.
The miraculous escape was passed along from newspaper to newspaper, and gained national attention.
“Even though the river wasn’t frozen that day,” Brunelle said.
If something similar happened today, it would be all over social media and be chalked up to “AI, the deep state, the Second Coming.”
Asked specifically about the effect of AI on magic, he said “it’s going to ruin everything.”
“I don’t think that anyone will believe photographic evidence.”
On the other hand, “if everybody distrusts what they see online, we’ll see more live performances.”
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Salisbury Town Hall
Nathan Miller
SALISBURY — Town officials discussed a proposed pedestrian tunnel beneath Route 44 at the Board of Selectmen’s regular meeting on Monday, Feb. 2.
First Selectman Curtis Rand said the underground walkway, which would connect Salisbury School’s main campus with its athletic fields, must be owned by the town because Route 44 is a state highway, under requirements from the state Department of Transportation.
Rand said the town’s attorney is working with the DOT and the school to draft a legal agreement. Salisbury School would be responsible for all construction and ongoing maintenance costs.
Budget
Rand said he has begun work on the 2026–27 budget with Comptroller Joe Cleaveland and noted that the town’s Grand List has been completed.
He also said the Town of Salisbury will be accepting grant funds from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’sSustainable Materials Management grant program, not to exceed $266,692, on behalf of the Salisbury/Sharon Transfer Station. The funds will be used to investigate, develop, and implement a process to expand food waste/organic separation and possibly implement a solid waste Unit-Based-Pricing — commonly known as Pay As You Throw —program within the towns of Salisbury and Sharon.
Ordinance review
Kristine Simmons, Jada Wilson, Emily Egan and Lorraine Cleveland are continuing work on updating the town’s ordinances. The revised ordinances will be presented and voted on at a future town meeting.
The selectmen also appointed John Harney to fill a vacancy on the Board of Assessment Appeals for a four-year term that expires in Nov. 2029.
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Jane Sellery, left, and Karen Vrotsos discussed genealogy practices at the Scoville Memorial Library Thursday, Jan. 29.
Patrick L. Sullivan
Genealogist Jane Sellery guided seven researchers through the challenges of tracing Revolutionary War–era Salisbury residents during a program at Scoville Memorial Library on Thursday, Jan. 29.
The session was the second in a series tied to Salisbury READS, a community reading program centered on “Revolution Song” by Russell Shorto. The program is sponsored by the library and the Salisbury Association Historical Society.
Participants researched individuals whose gravestones are located in the cemetery behind Salisbury Town Hall, uncovering firsthand the complications that often arise in historical records.
Tracy Flynn of Salisbury researched Jacob Davis — who was also known as Jacobus Davis — and found that even basic identification can be difficult. In addition to variant spellings, Flynn discovered what appeared to be two men with the same name, likely father and son. One Jacob Davis lived from 1737 to 1797, while the second lived from 1762 to 1841, spanning the Revolutionary War period and beyond.
Sellery said such confusion is common. Birth and death dates can be hard to read on worn gravestones, and even when legible, the dates do not always match written records.
Census records present additional challenges.
Sellery noted that the 1900 census is often off by one year, depending on whether a person was born before or after June 1. Wording also matters: a record stating someone was “in the 68th year” means the person was 67 at the time.
The 1890 census is largely unavailable due to a warehouse fire in St. Louis that destroyed most of the records.
Other obstacles include inconsistent name spellings — such as “Hayes” and “Hays” — difficult handwriting, and records written in foreign languages or alphabets. Sellery said artificial intelligence can help in some cases, such as translating images of documents written in the Cyrillic alphabet.
Addressing immigration records, Sellery said the popular belief that officials routinely Anglicized immigrants’ names is largely inaccurate. Facilities such as Ellis Island relied on passenger manifests from incoming ships, which did not always match later naturalization records.
“It wasn’t, ‘Okay, we’re going to make you Green,’” Sellery said.
She added that some immigrants intentionally changed or concealed their identities, while others adopted American-sounding names to assimilate. In the 1920s, name changes became more common amid fears of prejudice, a trend that reversed in the 1930s and 1940s.
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Housatonic Valley FFA students raised funds at the holiday store earlier this winter. On Feb. 5, Holly Kempner accepted a donation from the FFA on behalf of the Corner Food Pantry in Lakeville.
Patrick L. Sullivan
FALLS VILLAGE — On Feb. 5, the Housatonic Valley FFA Chapter donated a total of $1,200 to six local non-profits, with each organization receiving $200.
The recipients included Kent Food Pantry, Cornwall Food Bank, Fishes & Loaves in North Canaan, The Corner Food Pantry in Lakeville, the Sharon Food Bank, and the Jane Lloyd Fund — which provides financial support for cancer patients —in Salisbury.
Holly Kempner, who accepted a check on behalf of the Corner Food Pantry, said she was impressed by the FFA donation and the activities of the members.
“We serve a lot of people, including New York state and Massachusetts,” she said. “So we really appreciate it.”
For more than a decade, the Housatonic Valley FFA Chapter has supported local organizations, including the food pantries in Region One. These donations are made possible through the chapter’s Holiday Sale. The sale and class unit not only allows FFA members to give back to the community, but also provides valuable, hands-on experience in business management, marketing, communication, and teamwork.
Community members interested in supporting local food banks are encouraged to contact these food banks directly, as they are always in need of food donations and volunteer support.
Kellie Eisermann is the FFA Reporter for the 2025-26 school year. She is a junior and lives in Lakeville with her parents, Jonathan Eisermann and Aubrey Murphy. She plans to go into the family business, Four Seasons Pool Service in Millerton, and go to community college after graduation.
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